75: Chapter 75 Golden Entry - Fleeting Shadow

Early the next morning, before dawn, Lin Mo woke up.

He put on his combat suit, hung the zhan chao at his waist, stuffed some daily necessities into his spatial ring, pushed open the door, and walked out.

The camp was quiet. At this hour, most people were still sleeping; only a few sentries were standing guard at the camp entrance.

Lin Mo walked to the edge of the camp and was stopped by a sentry.

"What are you doing?"

"Leaving the camp."

The sentry looked him over and recognized who he was.

"Lin Mo? Are your injuries healed?"

"They are."

The sentry hesitated for a moment and looked toward the dark, looming mountains to the north.

"Going out now? It's not even dawn yet."

Lin Mo didn't speak.

The sentry sighed and waved his hand.

"Fine, fine, fine. You're tough. Go ahead."

Lin Mo nodded and walked past him.

After a few steps, the sentry suddenly called out to him:

"Hey!"

Lin Mo turned back.

The sentry stood there with a complicated expression.

"Come back alive."

Lin Mo was silent for a second.

Then he nodded.

He turned and walked into the night.

A faint white light just began to show on the horizon.

The shadows of the Nanling mountains became clearer in the morning light.

Lin Mo walked on the mountain road with steady steps.

He had walked this path twice before.

The first time, he killed more than twenty Rotten Wolves and a Wolf King.

The second time was when he supported the Sixth Battalion.

Now, this was the third time.

The sun had risen.

Golden sunlight spilled into the forest, making the dew glisten.

Lin Mo stood on a giant rock, looking at the increasingly dense forest ahead.

Then he jumped off the rock and continued forward.

Behind him, the direction of the camp was no longer visible.

In front of him were endless mountains.

[Ding~ Killed unranked Fierce Beast Rotten Wolf, slaughter value +1 (penalty mechanism, slaughter value reduced by 80%)]

[Ding~ Killed unranked Fierce Beast Rotten Wolf, slaughter value +1 (penalty mechanism, slaughter value reduced by 80%)]

[Ding~ Killed unranked Fierce Beast Web-clawed Beast, slaughter value +1 (penalty mechanism, slaughter value reduced by 80%)]

The slaughter value was crawling up bit by bit.

Because of the penalty mechanism, it was too slow.

Lin Mo stood under a large tree and caught his breath.

His body was splattered with quite a bit of blood, all from Fierce Beasts.

He just stared at the number on the system panel.

9501.

Still missing 499 points.

At his current speed, he would need to kill at least two or three hundred more unranked Fierce Beasts to gather the final 499 points of slaughter value.

This speed was too slow; he had to find higher-tier Fierce Beasts to kill.

Lin Mo looked up and quickened his pace.

[Ding~ Killed Tier 1 Late Stage Fierce Beast Black Brown Wild Boar, slaughter value +6 (penalty mechanism, slaughter value reduced by 80%).]

As Lin Mo went deeper, Tier 1 Fierce Beasts finally started to appear.

But these were not Lin Mo's targets.

At the very least, he needed late-stage tier two Fierce Beasts.

The penalty mechanism was so annoying; with his current cultivation, only killing late-stage tier two or Third-Order Fierce Beasts would have no penalty mechanism.

Lin Mo stood up, shook the blood off his blade, and continued moving forward.

[Ding~ Killed mid-tier two Fierce Beast Iron-boned Eagle, slaughter value +50 (penalty mechanism, slaughter value reduced by 50%)]

It was now nearing noon, and Second-Order Fierce Beasts finally began to appear in the surroundings.

Moreover, Lin Mo discovered that there seemed to be Second-Order auras in the forest ahead as well.

One.

Two.

Five.

He started being picky.

Unranked ones, he didn't kill; it was a waste of time.

Tier 1 ones, it depended on his mood. If they were on the way, he'd kill them; if not, he'd go around.

He only killed Second-Order ones.

One elite Rock Armor Beast that reached mid-tier two, slaughter value +40.

Two mid-tier two Red-scaled Pythons, slaughter value +80.

One late-stage tier two Shadow Leopard, slaughter value +120.

His speed was astonishingly fast; wherever his blade light passed, Second-Order Fierce Beasts fell in droves.

System notifications exploded crazily in his mind.

9551.

9591.

9661.

9781.

...

Two o'clock in the afternoon.

Lin Mo finally stopped.

Sunlight filtered through the layers of branches and leaves, casting mottled spots of light on the ground.

Lin Mo leaned against a large tree, took a bottle of mineral water from his spatial ring, and took a drink.

The water flowed down his throat, and the icy sensation refreshed him.

He raised his hand and looked at the system panel.

[slaughter value: 10110]

Finally enough.

From morning until now, he had been killing for over seven hours.

"System, upgrade God Speed."

[Ding! Detected that host's slaughter value has reached 10000 points, confirm upgrade of talent [God Speed]?]

[Confirm.]

[Consumed 10000 slaughter value, remaining slaughter value: 110]

[Starting upgrade——]

As soon as the words fell, Lin Mo's body trembled violently.

In his mind, something deeper was awakening.

He closed his eyes.

His consciousness fell into darkness.

Then——

"Boom."

A light exploded in the depths of his soul.

The light was silver, like moonlight condensed into substance, like starlight falling into the mortal world.

In the light, a voice echoed.

It was not the system's voice.

It was something more ancient, more essential—rules.

[Instant Shadow.]

Two words fell.

Lin Mo opened his eyes.

He discovered that he was no longer in that mountain forest.

He was standing in a void.

There was no sky, no earth, no up or down, no far or near.

Only silver.

Endless silver.

A voice sounded in his mind, not the system, but his own understanding of his ability, condensing into text.

[Instant Shadow (Golden)]

[Passive: All attributes increased by 40%, Agility attribute increased by 80%]

[Active I: Will Anchor: Movement is no longer a "process" but a "result." The mind is forcibly fixed at the moment of the target anchor point; the fact of arrival is recorded by time and space before the movement trajectory. Wherever the gaze reaches, it is a place reachable by teleportation. During the teleportation, ignore all physical momentum; an entity afterimage that lasts for 1 second is left at the original position, which can withstand attacks and confuse perception.]

[Active II: Double-Point Strike: During one teleportation, you can launch an unavoidable rule-based attack at each of the two landing points. It consumes a huge amount of physical energy. Continuous use will trigger space-time tinnitus and cause temporary bodily imbalance.]

[Starlight Moon Condensation: Retained. In the Starlight Moon Condensation state, the Instant Shadow passive effect is doubled.]

[Ding~ Congratulations to the host for awakening a Golden trait for the first time, completed achievement—Golden Legend, achievement points +3]

Lin Mo finished reading the last word, suddenly looked up, his eyes shining.

So that was it.

It wasn't running faster.

It was—no need to run anymore.

Wherever the gaze reaches, it is a place reachable by teleportation.

Where the mind points, the fact of arrival precedes the movement itself.

This was no longer in the category of "speed."

This had already touched upon the power of rules.

Lin Mo took a deep breath.

Then he moved.

Not taking a step, not sprinting, just a thought——

The next instant, he had already appeared a hundred meters away.

Without any process.

No acceleration, no trajectory, no intermediate state.

The previous instant he was still in place, the next instant he was already there.

Like a movie scene that had been edited, the frame in the middle had been directly deleted.

Lin Mo looked down, looking at the position where he had just been standing.

A silver afterimage was still left there.

It was not a phantom, but an entity, clear enough to see the folds of his clothes, the cloth wrapped around the hilt of his blade; it just stood there, maintaining the posture of looking up from just now, like a statue.

One second later, the afterimage slowly dissipated.

Lin Mo landed on the ground.

His heartbeat was a bit fast.

Not because of fatigue, but because of excitement.

A hundred meters, reached in an instant.

And——

He looked up, looking at another tree. That tree was hundreds of meters away, obscured by branches and leaves, and only a small section of the trunk could be seen.

He thought: Go there.

The next instant, the world spun, the scene flashed, and Lin Mo had already appeared on top of that treetop.

Piercing through all branches and leaves, ignoring all obstacles.

Wherever the gaze reaches, it is a place reachable by teleportation.

Lin Mo stood there, feeling the surging power within his body.

All attributes increased by 40%, Agility additionally increased by 80%.

The effect was double that of the purple God Speed.

It was equivalent to the boost after activating the active effect of God Speed.

And this boost was only the passive of Instant Shadow; as a passive effect, this boost could be maintained for a long time.

Moreover, after activating Starlight Moon Condensation, this boost could be doubled again!

The all-attribute boost reached an astonishing 80%, and the Agility attribute reached a terrifying 160%!

This was a Golden trait.

The boost magnitude was shockingly large.

No wonder it was said that every Awakener with a Golden trait was an existence like a guardian deity of Great Xia.

Not to mention other active effects, just possessing such a terrifying attribute boost made cross-tier combat as simple as drinking water.

"Open attribute panel!"

Lin Mo gave the order directly.

[Name: Lin Mo]

[Occupation: Awakener]

[traits: Instant Shadow (high-grade golden), Lightning Flash (high-grade purple)]

[cultivation: Tier 2, Stage 9]

[Strength: 145]

[Agility: 187]

[Constitution: 141]

[Spirit: 137]

[cultivation Techniques: Flowing Cloud Aurora Slash LV5 (36/100), Basic Saber Technique LV12 (78/100), Lingyan Steps LV4 (24/100), Turtle Breath Technique LV1 (13/100)]

[slaughter value: 110]

[achievement points: 7]